Coastal Coccolithophores (Guest Ed. R.W. Jordan)
J. Nannoplankton Res., Special Issue, 4, 2019, pp. 81–88 © 2019 International Nannoplankton Association
ISSN 1210-8049 Printed by The Sheridan Press, USA

81

Calcareous nannofossils from a Late Cretaceous nearshore
setting
Tobias Püttmann*, Jörg Mutterlose

Institute for Geology, Mineralogy & Geophysics, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany; Tobias.Puettmann@
rub.deManuscript received 23rd August, 2017; revised manuscript accepted 24th January, 2018

Abstract Unexpectedly rich and diverse associations of calcareous nannofossils are reported from Upper Cretaceous sediments of northern Germany. Samples from the Cenomanian–Campanian yielded well-preserved calcareous
nannofossils, with an average of 52 to 81 species per sample. The most common taxa were Biscutum, Zeugrhabdotus,
Watznaueria, Tranolithus and Prediscosphaera, which exceeded 60% in each assemblage. The sediments were deposited in a coastal nearshore setting, at water-depths of ≤40m. The material was collected from glauconite-rich marlsthat contain small amounts of quartz. These nearshore deposits, lying 10–20km from the former coastline, interfinger
with hemipelagic chalks and limestones, which reflect the widely distributed sediments of the Late Cretaceous.
We postulate that this Late Cretaceous nearshore environment, represented by glauconite-rich marls, and with diverse
and abundant calcareous nannofossil assemblages, has no modern analogue. Our data suggest a Late Cretaceous‘water world’ scenario, where open oceanic conditions prevailed, even in nearshore settings.
Keywords Calcareous nannofosils, Late Cretaceous, NW Germany, nearshore sediments
1. Introduction
During a drilling campaign in 2003–2015, the Geological
Survey of North Rhine Westfalia cored Cenomanian toCampanian sediments in 13 wells in NW Germany (Fig.
1; Dölling et al., 2018). These cores recovered glauconiterich marls, which were deposited 0–10km north of theformer coast, under shallow-marine conditions. The
glauconite, cross-bedding in some of the glauconite beds,
the macrofauna and ichnofossils suggest a shallow-water
environment, which did not exceed 10–40m water-depth.
Unconformities in some of the cores, which were drilled
a maximum of 10 km apart, indicate the relief of the
Carboniferous basement onto which the Late Cretaceous
sea transgressed. A very shallow-marine nearshore
setting was likely, with runoff from the nearby hinterland
supplying dissolved iron for the glauconite formation, but
not a substantial input of coarse-grained components.
Unexpectedly, these deposits provided well-preserved
and diverse calcareous nannofossil assemblages. All
samples showed moderate to very good preservation.
Moderate preservation, indicated by minor calcite
overgrowth of the nannofossils, was observed in the
carbonate-rich, less sandy and less glauconite-richsediments. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images
show minor etching and/or overgrowth in two of the cores(Oberhausen, Duisburg).
To our knowledge, this is the first time that highlydiverse and abundant nannofossil assemblages have been

described from a relatively very shallow-water setting.
Here, we present the initial data from our findings andattempt to place the new observations into a supraregional
context.

Figure 1: A. Palaeogeographic map of the Cenomanian (modified after
Scotese, 2014). B. Northern and central Europe in the Cenomanian(modified after Ziegler, 1990). C. Palaeogeographic map of the study areain the Cenomanian, showing the studied sections and the palaeocoastline(Albian, after Frieg et al., 1990)

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2. Regional geology
Throughout the Triassic–Early Cretaceous, NW Germany
formed the northern part of the continental Rhenish
Massif, where Carboniferous rocks were exposed anderoded (Hiss, 1995). With the global sea-level rise startingin the Late Albian, the area was flooded from the north, andmarine conditions prevailed throughout the Cenomanian–Campanian. The trace of the Late Cretaceous shoreline
was well documented by shallow-water, nearshore
sediments, cropping out over a distance of 150km in awest–east direction. In the more hemipelagic settings,
some 10–20km north of the former coastline, the Late
Cretaceous global sea-level maximum is evidenced by thewidespread occurrence of chalks, limestones and marls.
These carbonates contain rich and diverse calcareous
nannofossil assemblages, well known from other areas
around the world via the Deep Sea Drilling Project andlater programmes.
A proximal c. 10km-wide belt along the former
coastline in the south is dominated by marls with highamounts of glauconite and, to a lesser extent, quartz sand.
The glauconite-rich marls rest unconformably on Upper
Carboniferous sand- and siltstones. The heterochronous
onset of Early Cenomanian sedimentation, and thepresence of local unconformities in some of the cores,
which are a maximum of 10km apart, suggest the reliefof the Carboniferous basement onto which the Late
Cretaceous sea transgressed. Local swells, formed byweathering-resistant Carboniferous sandstone ridges,
emerged 4–10m above the Cretaceous sea level. These
small cliffs, which alternated with shallow marine
lagoonal settings, are known from four outcrops(Mülheim, Bochum, Fröndenberg, Bremen-Ense) locatedin the Cenomanian coastal belt of the study area (Kukuk,
1938; Hiss et al., 2008; Linnert & Mutterlose, 2012). The
richness in glauconite and the relatively low amount ofquartz grains indicate a siliciclastic-starved marine coastal
setting and a flat palaeorelief of the hinterland. The microand macrofaunas – which, among other things, include
sea urchins – are fully marine. A very shallow-marine
nearshore setting is likely, with runoff from the nearby
hinterland supplying dissolved iron for the glauconite
formation. Cross-bedding has been observed in theglauconite-rich Middle Turonian interval in the Oberausen
core. The high proportion of matrix is interpreted as having
resulted from muddy coastal waters of the inner shelf, withwater-depths of about 0–20m (Hiss, 1985; Wilmsen et al.,2005). The continuous occurrence of bioturbation indicates
well-oxygenated bottom-water conditions. Authigenic
glauconite formation likely occurred under reducing
microenvironments in the uppermost part of the sedimentcolumn (Robert, 2009). The three wells that supplied
the material for this study penetrated the glauconite-richnearshore succession of Cenomanian to Campanian age(Dölling et al., 2018; Püttmann et al., 2018).
3. Material and methods
Three wells (Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen; Fig. 1), which
are dominated by sandy, glauconitic marls, recovered
sediments of Early Cenomanian to Early Campanianage. Calcareous nannofossils were studied using an
Olympus BH-2 light-microscope (LM) at 1250x and1500x magnification. In a first step, 154 smear-slides
were biostratigraphically screened to establish an initialstratigraphic framework for the three cores (Püttmann
et al., 2018). Sample processing followed Perch-Nielsen(1985), species identification followed a combinationof Burnett et al. (1998) and Nannotax3, with references
therein.
The aim of this study was to first obtain data on the
nannofossil assemblage compositions in these nearshore
sediments. A total of six samples were selected fromdifferent stratigraphic levels (Lower Cenomanian, UC1b;
Lower Turonian, UC7; Upper Turonian, UC9a; Middle toUpper Coniacian, UC10–11a; Upper Santonian, UC12;
Lower Campanian, UC13), to represent most of the Late
Cretaceous. Relative abundances of specific taxa werethen investigated in settling-slides by counting at least 300
specimens per slide. For settling-slide preparation, seeGeisen et al. (1999).
4. Results
All six samples studied showed moderate to very goodnannofossil preservation (Fig. 2). Moderate preservation,
indicated by minor calcite overgrowth of the nannofossils,
was observed in the carbonate-rich, less sandy and lessglauconite-rich sediments. The sand- and glauconite-richsamples of the Cenomanian and Turonian yielded very
well-preserved calcareous nannofossils. SEM images
demonstrate only minor etching and/or overgrowth in the
Oberhausen core (Fig. 2).
An average of 52 to 81 species per sample wereNannofossils from a Late Cretaceous nearshore setting

encountered throughout the three cores, with a maximumof 81 species being identified in the Oberhausen core (at252.20m). The diversity of the assemblages is documented
by images of selected, well-preserved specimens (Plates 1,2). Coccoliths smaller than 5μm, such as Zeugrhabdotus
erectus, Corollithion signum and Tranolithus minimus,
occur frequently, and somewhat support the absence ofdissolution.

Figure 2: SEM images of well-preserved calcareous nannofossils fromthe Oberhausen core. A. Repagulum parvidentatum, UC8b (258.21m,
Middle Turonian). B. Prediscosphaera cretacea, UC9a (246.46m, Upper
Turonian)Counts of the relative abundances of the most common
taxa, which jointly comprised >60% in each given
assemblage, resulted in the dataset shown in Figure 3.
The sample from the Lower Cenomanian is dominatedby Biscutum spp. (23.6%), Zeugrhabdotus spp. (18.27%),
Watznaueria spp. (15.0%), Tranolithus spp. (10.0%) andPrediscosphaera spp. (3.7%). The abundance patterns
observed in the Lower Turonian sample include Biscutum
spp. (11.0%), Zeugrhabdotus spp. (16.4%), Watznaueria
spp. (14.6%) and Prediscosphaera spp. (10.1%). The

83

sample from the Upper Turonian consists of Biscutum
spp. (18.2%), Watznaueria spp. (15.5%), Tranolithus spp.
(9.8%), Prediscosphaera spp. (8.4%) and Staurolithites
spp. (7.6%). Most common in the Middle Coniaciansample are Biscutum spp. (13.0%), Tranolithus spp.
(12.7%), Watznaueria spp. (11.1%), Zeugrhabdotus spp.
(9.8%) and Eiffellithus spp. (7.1%). The sample fromthe Upper Santonian yielded Biscutum spp. (24.1%),
Prediscosphaera spp. (10.0%), Tranolithus spp. (9.7%),
Watznaueria spp. (9.7%) and Zeugrhabdotus spp. (7.8%).
The uppermost sample – Lower Campanian – provided
Biscutum spp. (23.1%), Tranolithus spp. (10.6%),
Prediscosphaera spp. (9.9%), Watznaueria spp. (8.7%)
and Zeugrhabdotus spp. (8.3%).
5. Discussion
The good preservation of the calcareous nannofossils
encountered can be explained by a combination of factors.
These include: 1) the rarity of coarse-grained siliciclastics
and a high amount of clay (and glauconite), giving thesediments a low porosity, so that pore-water circulation
was restricted; 2) shallow depositional water-depths in a
warm lagoonal environment; 3) an absence of diagenetic
overprint, due to a low overburden and subsequent
Cenozoic uplift; and 4) a low amount of organic matterin the deposits, which is known to accelerate postdepositional carbonate dissolution (Self-Trail & Seefelt,
2005).
Studies of nannofossil assemblages from coastal/nearshore palaeoenvironments from the geologicalpast are rare. In contrast to the present day, much morewidespread epicontinental shelf seas existed during theJurassic, Cretaceous, Paleocene and Eocene for calcareous
nannofossils to inhabit. The widespread sedimentation ofchalks under neritic/hemipelagic conditions (water-depthsof ≤200m, coastal distance of ≥50km) resulted from this.
There is no modern analogue for such a setting; currently,
shelf-break fronts prohibit the mixing of nearshore andopen-ocean waters, and thus prevent a strong influx ofcalcareous nannofossils into the shallow seas (Hay, 2008).
In the Late Cretaceous, a wide variety of calcareous
nannofossil species occupied the epicontinental seas,
where they could exist in rock-forming abundances.
Early nannofossil studies of Mesozoic sediments
differentiated between neritic (shelf) and pelagic (openocean) calcareous nannofossil assemblages. Most taxa

84

Püttmann, Mutterlose

Plate 1
LM images of nannofossils from the Duisburg, Essen and Oberhausen cores

Ahmuellerella octoradiata
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Amphizygus brooksii
Duisburg, 40.05m

Biscutum constans
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Biscutum melaniae
Oberhausen, 252.20m

Braarudosphaera bigelowii
Essen, 89.00m

Broinsonia furtiva
Oberhausen, 82.30m

Broinsonia parca subsp. expansa Calciosolenia fossilis
Essen, 83.41m
Essen, 110.33m

Calculites ovalis
Oberhausen, 150.17m

Chiastozygus bifarius
Duisburg, 40.05m

Chiastozygus litterarius
Duisburg, 40.05m

Chi. synquadriperforatus
Oberhausen, 124.15m

Chiastozygus trabalis
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Corollithion exiguum
Oberhausen, 82.30m

Corollithion kennedyi
Essen, 106.00m

Corollithion signum
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Cretarhabdus conicus
Oberhausen, 252.20m

Cretarhabdus striatus
Essen, 105.00m

Cribrosphaerella ehrenbergii
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Discorhabdus ignotus
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Eiffellithus casulus
Essen, 83.90m

Eiffellithus eximius
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Eiffellithus turriseiffelii
Oberhausen, 264.42m

Eprolithus ﬂoralis
Essen, 83.90m

Eprolithus moratus
Essen, 86.00m

Eprolithus octopetalus
Essen, 89.00m

Eprolithus rarus
Duisburg, 40.05m

Gartnerago chiasta
Oberhausen, 264.79m

Gartnerago obliquum
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Gartnerago segmentatum
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Gartnerago theta
Essen, 82.74m

Grantarhabdus coronadventis
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Haqius circumradiatus
Duisburg, 40.05m

Helenea chiastia
Essen, 105.00m

Helicolithus compactus
Essen, 82.74m

Helicolithus trabeculatus
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Helicolithus turonicus
Essen, 80.00m

Kamptnerius magniﬁcus
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Kokia kayae
Essen, 89.00m

Lithastrinus grillii
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Lithastrinus septenarius
Essen, 74.00m

are common to both settings, with only a few genera (e.g.
Nannoconus, Micrantholithus, Braarudosphaera) having
neritic affinities (Thierstein, 1976; Roth & Krumbach,

Gartnerago praeobliquum
Oberhausen, 39.10m (reworked)

1986; Applegate et al., 1989). These taxa inhabited
inner- to middle-shelf settings on a supraregional scale.
Alternatively, nannoconids may have preferred clear, clean

Nannofossils from a Late Cretaceous nearshore setting

85

Plate 2
LM images of nannofossils from the Duisburg, Essen and Oberhausen cores

Lithraphidites carniolensis
Essen, 83.41m

Lithraphidites acutus
Oberhausen, 260.10m

Lucianorhabdus compactus
Essen, 84.67m

Manivitella pemmatoidea
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Marthasterites furcatus
Essen, 72.40m

Microrhabdulus belgicus
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Microrhabdulus helicoideus
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Microrhabdulus undosus
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Micula staurophora
Oberhausen, 150.17m

Octocyclus reinhardtii
Oberhausen, 43.43m

Orastrum campanensis
Oberhausen, 30.15m

Prediscosphaera cretacea
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Prediscosphaera ponticula
Oberhausen, 252.20m

Prediscosphaera spinosa
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Quadrum gartneri
Oberhausen, 30.15m

Quadrum intermedium
Essen, 74.00m

Radiolithus orbiculatus
Essen, 112.94m

Radiolithus planus
Duisburg, 40.05m

Retecapsa octofenestrata
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Retecapsa surirella
Oberhausen, 150.17m

Rhagodiscus achlyostaurion
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Rhagodiscus angustus
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Rhagodiscus asper
Oberhausen, 260.10m

Rhagodiscus splendens
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Seribiscutum primitivum
Oberhausen, 30.15m

Staurolithites ellipticus
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Staurolithites gausorhethium
Essen, 113.00m

Tranolithus gabalus
Duisburg, 40.05m

Tranolithus minimus
Oberhausen, 252.20m

Tranolithus orionatus
Oberhausen, 115.20m

Watznaueria barnesiae
Essen, 83.90m

Watznaueria britannica
Essen, 80.00m (reworked)

Watznaueria ovata
Essen, 84.90m

Zeugrhabdotus acanthus
Oberhausen, 39.10m

Zeugrhabdotus bicrescenticus
Duisburg, 40.05m

Zeugrhabdotus biperforatus
Oberhausen, 82.30m

Zeugrhabdotus embergeri
Essen, 86.00m

Zeugrhabdotus erectus
Duisburg, 40.05m

Zeugrhabdotus howei
Duisburg, 40.05m

Zeugrhabdotus noeliae
Duisburg, 40.05m

Zeugrhabdotus scutula
Duisburg, 40.05m

Zeugrhabdotus simplex
Oberhausen, 39.10m

waters, not necessarily reflecting nearshore conditions(Mutterlose & Bottini, 2013).
Linnert & Mutterlose (2015) described relatively

rich nearshore assemblages from the Lower Turonianof the current study area. High relative abundances of
eutrophic taxa, such as Biscutum constans (max. 16.2%)

86

Püttmann, Mutterlose

and Tranolithus orionatus (max. 12.7%) suggest anelevated palaeofertility. This is consistent with a nearshore
setting, where nutrients would have been provided via
fluvial input from the nearby landmass. In our dataset,increased abundances of Biscutum spp. (max. 24.2%,
Upper Santonian) and T. orionatus (max. 11.9%, Middle
to Upper Coniacian) support this hypothesis for the entire
Cenomanian–Campanian interval.
Our findings relate to a very specific Late Cretaceous
scenario. The Late Cretaceous sea-level rise resulted ina breakdown of the shelf-break fronts, which could nolonger be maintained. Chalks were then deposited in the
broad epicontinental seas, which became an integrated
part of the oceanic realm. Hemipelagic conditions were
established, and oceanic calcareous plankton invaded theepicontinental seas. At the same time, warm and humid
conditions prevailed. In specific coastal settings, in theabsence of a significant input of coarse-grained clastics
due to low inland relief and perhaps dense vegetation,
sediment starvation occurred. Present-day mangroveswamps, typical in warm, humid environments between
25˚N and 25˚S, might perhaps be the closest to a modern

Figure 3: Relative abundances of the most common taxa. B. – Biscutum spp., W. – Watznaueria spp., Z. – Zeugrhabdotus spp., T. – Tranolithus spp., P.
– Prediscosphaera spp., S. – Staurolithites spp., E. – Eiffellithus spp., H. – Helicolithus spp., R. – Rhagodiscus spp., n – number of specimens counted,
sr – species richness. UC – Upper Cretaceous nannofossil zones of Burnett et al. (1998), absolute ages after Gradstein (2012)

Nannofossils from a Late Cretaceous nearshore setting

analogue. Our Late Cretaceous nearshore setting wascharacterised by a calcareous open-ocean signal (i.e. from
calcareous nannofossils) and glauconite, forming in asediment-starved environment.
6. Conclusions
To our knowledge, this is the first time that well-preserved
Late Cretaceous calcareous nannofossils have beenreported from a very shallow-marine nearshore settingof 0–10km from the coast. The assemblages are highly
diverse and very abundant, and contain common nearshore
taxa. We postulate that this Late Cretaceous glauconiterich marl environment, with its diverse and abundantcalcareous nannofossil assemblages, has no modern
analogue. Our data suggest a Late Cretaceous ‘water
world’ scenario, where open-ocean conditions prevailed inthis palaeocoastal setting.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Geological Survey of North Rhine87

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